Ophelia\u27s Reflection

This project examines Ophelia\u27s role in the thematic exploration of the nature of the individual self in Shakespeare\u27s Hamlet. First, I discuss the different models of subjectivity and virtue that Ophelia embodies and by which characters around her judge her actions. Her father, Polonius, espouses a form of Renaissance humanism that Shakespeare counters throughout the play. He believes the imitation of noble qualities can affect inner goodness, and he demands Ophelia\u27s obedience of his instructions regarding noble conduct. In contrast, Hamlet locates moral authority within the individual, and he dismisses Polonius\u27 notions of elite selfpresentation as vulgar performances. Both men privilege the development of the individual as the highest goal in ethical action, and Ophelia counters their ethics in two ways. First, she embodies a different mode of subjectivity that privileges connection with others over self-promotion or self-preservation, and she conceives of natural communion where Hamlet insists on the impossibility of surmounting the barriers of self-interest between discrete selves. Second, her fate registers the potential destructiveness of Polonius\u27 and Hamlets\u27 ethics: Polonius\u27 restrictive guidance fails to secure her a husband or to ensure that others treat her with dignity and respect. Hamlet\u27s single-minded pursuit of his personal conception of justice discards her feelings, her reputation, and father\u27s life as collateral, and her poignant madness undermines his selfconception as a sincere individual suffering at the hands of corrupt others